"What do you mean?" She was gazing at him with love and admiration; but an intense anxiety came into her eyes.
"Well, I mean exactly what I said then. Nothing can change my mind. But, as I told you, I can't have all the world pointing at me as a penniless adventurer who has caught a rich wife.... But you've planned—you mean to prevent—"
His eyes did not meet hers. She dropped his hand, and looked at him now with a passionate, yearning intentness.
"Go on—quickly. Say what it is that you mean."
"I mean, it is to be a thorough partnership—husband and wife on an equal footing. You mean it, too, don't you? Partners in love and partners in everything else!"
"Yes," she said, after a scarcely perceptible hesitation. "I did mean that. You have anticipated what I intended."
"My sweetheart and my wife." As he whispered the words, her whole face lit up with triumphant joy. "I knew that you meant it all along. And I'm the happiest proudest man that ever lived.... Now you'd better tell them. Let them know that, too."
Again she hesitated. She was in a fever of excitement, with all real thought obliterated by the flood of emotion; and yet perhaps already, though unconsciously to herself, she had attained a complete knowledge of the fatal nature of her mistake.
"Do you want me to tell them now—at once?"
"Yes," he said gaily. "No time like the present. Let them know how my dear wife and I mean to stand—and then there'll be nothing for anybody to chatter about."